The big problem? The thing that separates the pros from the wannabes, I think, is successful prospecting. A professional sales person knows how to find prospects. The wannabes expect to be fed from some sort of "leads spigot" -- a pipe that endlessly serves up a plate of already-warm prospects. People who would probably buy from you whether you had a sales person or not. These whiners are expecting others (perhaps you) to prospect for them, and they just go out and scoop up the orders. These are not sales people -- they're "order takers". In my experience, over 70% of applicants for sales jobs have experience as order takers -- not as sales people. And perhaps they'll find another one of those gigs. If that's not what you need, look further.
If your own skill set includes effective prospecting, you may be able to teach that skill to another person. If you come by it naturally, it'll be harder -- you'll have to examine exactly what works for you, how you do it, and then train and coach them in that skill. If that's part of your plan, you may find this article useful: 5 Prospecting & Networking Tips for Sales Pros
Much better to address prospecting ability in the selection process -- during the initial interview with a sales candidate. You'll want to use some behavioral interviewing techniques to ferret this out with a candidate. Ask questions like:
- "Tell
me
about
a
time
in
your
career
where
you
just
didn't
have
enough
prospects
to
fill
your
pipeline."
The
candidate
may
"out"
himself,
saying
something
like,
"Well,
when
I
worked
for
___,
they
just
didn't
give
me
enough
leads,
and
I
eventually
had
to
leave."
- If
the
candidate
actually
can
describe
a
real
time
(exactly
when,
where,
for
whom
they
were
working,
etc.)
when
that
was
the
case,
follow
up
with
something
like:
"And
what
did
you
do
about
that?"
"How
did
that
work
out?"
- Then ask them about another time when they had to generate their own leads. You're looking for a prior behavior that will predict how they'll be able (and willing) to prospect for you (not how they theoretically might generate their own leads).
Effective
prospectors
can
be
developed
--
if
they're
willing
to
do
a
couple
of
things
most
people
don't
like
to
do.
Those
things
include
continuing
to
make
contact
with
and
get
acquainted
with
strangers,
and
also
listening
to
a
lot
of
"no's"
without
taking
them
personally.
That's
why
there
aren't
many
pro
sales
people
--
the
average
person
just
isn't
willing
to
do
the
things
the
pros
do
to
earn
the
freedom
they
have
and
the
money
they
make.
You
can
develop
your
stable
of
prospectors
through
selection/deselection
or
through
training
and
development.
Just
don't
waste
a
lot
of
time
on
the
latter
unless
you
see
major
forward
progress
in
the
early
going.
Sales
training
is
a
huge
industry
for
a
reason
--
there
are
a
lot
of
people
out
there
who
can't
sell
and
won't
ever
be
able
to
sell
but
their
employers
just
won't
give
up
on
them
and
go
find
someone
who
can.
